Worldwide crypto regime CARF has just got activated, with industry players in 48 early-adopter countries obliged to collect user data as 2026 kicks in.
Beginning January 1, 2026, Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) in 48 countries and jurisdictions committed to implement CARF (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework) for 2027 exchange are obliged to start collecting detailed information on their platforms’ users and their transactions.
Developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), CARF is a logical continuation of international tax reporting and information exchange standards, now applied also to crypto and similar digital assets.
This global tax transparency standard was designed to bring crypto into the same automatic information-sharing system that already applies to traditional financial accounts. OECD’s Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) systems enable tax authorities to automatically share the collected user information across borders, thus getting international visibility into crypto trading and holdings, so that taxpayers cannot easily avoid declaring income or gains even if the jurisdiction of exchange they benefit from doesn’t coincide with their country of residence.
The detailed information that needs to be collected under the new regulatory framework contains user identity and tax residence ID, data on reportable crypto transactions (purchases, sales, transfers, including those above a reporting threshold).
CASPs, e.g. crypto exchanges, custodians, brokers, and certain wallet services, need full-year transaction histories to build a dataset with verified user identity and tax residency records that follow CARF standards that they will exchange with each other starting 2027 – the next CARF milestone.
Beyond the first 48, additional jurisdictions (over 70+ worldwide) have also committed to implementing CARF in the coming years, with subsequent exchange start dates varying from 2028 to 2029.
The new regulatory regime is a welcome change from past voluntary and inconsistent reporting practices. Besides, CARF is not a standalone rule. It is part of the broader international standards ecosystem, complementing the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and other existing financial reporting regimes, aligning digital assets with traditional finance in global tax cooperation.
Among the world’s major financial hubs, the United States is not sticking to the CARF reporting standards, as it already has its own extensive crypto reporting requirements (e.g., FBAR/FATCA-style obligations). However, it is expected to participate in international information sharing as well, though a little differently.
